This invention relates to the direct production of non-oxide ceramic powders of carbides, nitrides, silicides, sulfides, borides or mixtures thereof from volatile compounds in a liquid metal reactor. Particular interest exists for liquid sodium as the reacting metal and the present invention will be described with particular reference to sodium but is applicable to other alkali and alkaline earth metal reducing media. Elemental materials have been successfully made by the Armstrong Process described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,779,761, 5,958,106 and 6,409,797, but those patents describe the use of one or more halide feed streams, whereas the present invention is related to ceramics using different feed streams than previously disclosed. For the purposes of this invention the feedstocks include those metals that have volatile liquid compounds such as, by way of example only, the halides of titanium, tantalum, zirconium, aluminum, vanadium and silicon.